When you press on the gas pedal in your car, you obviously expect for it to move forward. But there are some instances in which you’ll find that this won’t take place. You might even find that your car stops accelerating while driving all the time and puts you into dangerous situations. If this is ever the case, you should spring into action and do something about it right away. Find out some of the most common causes of this condition below and learn about what you can do to fix the problem immediately. It’ll help keep you, your car, and others safe.
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Clogged Fuel Filter
One of the first things you’re going to want to check out when your car stops accelerating while driving is your fuel filter. Your fuel filter is positioned in between your car’s fuel pump and its fuel injections, and it’s designed to remove any impurities from the fuel that you put into your vehicle. These impurities could wreak havoc on your car’s engine over time if they’re able to gain access to it.
The problem, though, is that your fuel filter will often get clogged up with the impurities that it’s made to filter out of your fuel. As a result, you might find that your car stops accelerating while driving. This is often because a clogged fuel filter will start to have no choice but to allow contaminants to get to your engine. And once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before you run into problems with your engine.
You should make it a point to replace your car’s fuel filter every 20,000 to 40,000 miles or so. This will prevent it from getting clogged up with impurities and ensure that your car continues to accelerate each and every time you push down on your gas pedal.
Bad Air Filter
Your fuel filter isn’t the only filter you’re going to want to look at when you notice that your car stops accelerating while driving. You’re also going to want to take a gander at your air filter. Your air filter provides your engine with the air that it needs to mix in with your fuel so that your car as a whole is able to generate enough power.
Much like your fuel filter, your air filter can also get clogged up over time. It’s built to stop everything from dirt and dust to bugs and other contaminants that might be in the air that enters your car out of your engine. But it can fill up with them and stop doing its job if you’re not careful. Your engine won’t be able to get enough air when your air filter is clogged up, which can stop it from producing the amount of power your car needs to accelerate.
It’s a good idea to get into the habit of replacing the air filter in your car every 10,000 to 20,000 miles, depending on the kinds of conditions that you should subject your car too. If you drive your car around in a place with poor air quality, it could negatively impact your air filter and cause it to clog up much sooner than an air filter used in a place with great air quality.
Clogged Exhaust Pipe
Over the years, auto manufacturers have gone above and beyond to try and reduce the emissions created by their vehicles. The goal has become to cut way down on the pollution that cars create when they’re out on the road. To that end, these manufacturers have created state-of-the-art exhaust systems that uses catalytic converters and mufflers to eliminate a large percentage of the pollution that cars create. But these systems won’t do you much good if you have a clogged exhaust pipe in your car.
A clogged exhaust pipe isn’t going to be able to send the exhaust gases that your car creates out the back of your car. At first, this might not cause too many issues with your ability to drive. But if you ignore the problem for too long, you might find that your car stops accelerating while driving. You’ll need to have your exhaust pipe unclogged as soon as possible to get your car driving like normal again.
Bad Ignition Coil
You might not necessarily realize this, but when you first put your car key into your car’s ignition and turn it, there are a number of parts that have to spring into action to get your car to start up. One of the most important parts in this process is the ignition coil. It’s in charge of taking the little bit of power that your car is able to produce when you start it and turning it into about 20,000 volts worth of power. This high voltage is needed to create the spark in your spark plugs that’s necessary to get your car up and running and keep it that way.
If your car stops accelerating while driving, your ignition coil could very well be to blame for it. Your car actually might not start up at all when this is the case. But it might also start up for a little while before giving out on you as soon as you begin to drive it. Either way, it’s not a problem that you’re going to want to linger for very long.
Replacing an ignition coil isn’t the most difficult auto repair job in the world. Some people who know their way around a car will tackle the task on their own as opposed to paying someone else to do it for them. But it’s not a job you should put off for any length of time if you suspect it could be causing your car to conk out on you without warning.
Bad Spark Plugs
While your car’s ignition coil is responsible for creating the electrical signal that your car needs to start, it’s the spark plugs in your car that are ultimately going to create the spark that your car needs to get going. With this in mind, your spark plugs are another key component that you should consider taking a look at if your car stops accelerating while driving. They could be behind the problem at hand.
When the spark plugs in your vehicle first begin to go bad on you, it’s usually going to result in your engine’s performance diminishing. But over time, your engine is going to get worse and worse before it eventually fails on you completely. At that point, you’re going to have a huge problem on your hands, which is why you want to try and avoid allowing things to get to be that bad.
Most of the spark plugs found in cars today need to be replaced every 30,000 miles or so. By replacing them that often, you can reduce the chances of you finding yourself with a car that stops accelerating while driving. But you should read through the owner’s manual for your specific car to see if your auto manufacturer recommends replacing them sooner than that. It could save you from dealing with a whole host of car problems.
Bad Camshaft Position Sensor
There are lots of sensors scattered throughout your car that communicate with your car’s electronic control module at all times. They’re meant to let the ECM know if there are any issues with your car at any point. The camshaft position sensor is one of the most important sensors in your vehicle, as it’s designed to record the speed of your engine’s camshaft so that the ECM can adjust timing of the fuel injection and ignition of your car.
If there is a malfunction with your camshaft position sensor while you’re behind the wheel of your car, it’s not going to send the right information to your ECM. That could very well result in your engine’s performance being altered pretty dramatically. It could even leave you in a car that won’t accelerate for you while you’re trying to drive it.
The good news is that a new camshaft position sensor shouldn’t set you back too much. On average, people only pay between $180 and $250 in most cases for camshaft position sensor replacement. But this particular problem can be difficult to diagnose. You should keep a close eye out for any engine troubles and take your car in for service to see what might be the problem with it.
Bad Mass Airflow Sensor
We spoke earlier about how your car’s air filter is responsible for making sure that your engine is able to get the air that it needs. But what we didn’t mention is that there is also a mass airflow sensor in place right near it that controls how much air is sent in the direction of your engine. The mass airflow sensor communicates with your powertrain control module and helps determine how much air to give to your engine to keep it running efficiently.
It’s not all that out of the ordinary for a mass airflow sensor to go bad, though. In fact, most experts will tell you that you should replace your mass airflow sensor about once every 12,000 miles or so. Otherwise, you might discover that your car stops accelerating while driving. Or at the very least, you might find that your car’s engine will burn through more fuel than it should while you’re driving around.
Bad Fuel Pump
Your car has a tank in it that is designed to hold the fuel that you put into your vehicle. But in order for your car to put that has to good use, it needs to be able to move it to your engine. To do this, it relies on a fuel pump that is powerful enough to take the fuel that you have in your tank and send it to your engine. On top of this, your car needs your fuel pump to deliver the fuel to your engine at the exact right pressure to ensure peak performance.
If your car’s fuel pump isn’t working the way it should, it might not send enough fuel to your engine when it requests it. It might also not get it to the engine at the right pressure. Both of these things can cause your car to stop accelerating despite the fact that you’re pushing down on the gas pedal. You can get around this problem by replacing your fuel pump with a new one.
Bad Fuel Injector
Your car’s fuel pump can carry gas to your car’s engine, but it can’t put the gas into the engine on its own. Instead, the fuel pump pushes the gas as far as your car’s fuel injections, which are then used to spray fuel into your engine so that your engine can use it. Obviously, it’s very important for your fuel injectors to spray the right amount of fuel into your engine at the right time. If they don’t, that is when problems with your engine will start to occur.
You might want to consider whether or not your fuel injectors could be the issue if your car stops accelerating while driving. Replacing your car’s fuel injectors isn’t necessarily going to be the cheapest car repair around. But it will be a necessary job if you plan on keeping your car out on the rad.
What to Do If Your Car Stops Accelerating While Driving
When your car stops accelerating while driving, it can be a very scary thing. People often lose their cool and don’t know what to do next. The first thing that you should do is find out what’s wrong with your car and fix it. As you’ve just seen, there are lots of things that can cause your car to lose power when you’re driving it. Diagnosing the exact issue you’re having and fixing it will be of the utmost importance.
If you don’t want to fix whatever is wrong with your car, you also have one other option. You can sell a car that stops accelerating while driving to junk car buyers for cash and walk away from it altogether. It’s often the right move to make if you have an older car that isn’t worth much. You could get top dollar for it and avoid costly repairs in the process.
Does the idea of doing this interest you? Cash Cars Buyer would love to make you an offer for your car. Get in touch with us today to see how simple it is to sell an old car in a matter of just a few days.